Gaels split NCC triangular

January 4, 2013

For the St. Edmond wrestling team, Thursday's North Central Conference triangular with Clarion-Goldfield and Eagle Grove featured a mixed bag of results.

Making their first appearance of the new year, the Gaels (3-5 overall, 2-4 NCC) settled for a split on Parents Night inside their own gym.

After watching a potential victory slip away in a 40-33 setback to the 15th-ranked (Class 1A IWCOA) Cowboys, SEHS quickly rebounded with an 84-0 shutout of Eagle Grove.

Article Photos

—Messenger photo by Dale Wooten

St. Edmond's Ryan Szalat squares off with Evan Ulven of Clarion-Goldfield on Thursday inside the Gael gym. For more photos, http://cu.messengernews.net/Sports/Gael-Wrestling

"I thought we made some more strides and showed definite improvement (Thursday) from our last outing (a 42-29 loss to Algona back on Dec. 21)," Gael head coach Tanner Utley said. "Considering this was our first meet coming out of the break, I thought our guys competed pretty hard and gave a good overall effort."

Teddie Harvey, a two-time state qualifier, collected a pair of pins en route to his 114th career triumph, while younger brother and defending state qualifier Vinnie Harvey also impressed with a 1:23 fall time against No. 2 Mitch Gambrill, who placed seventh at state last winter.

"Ryan, Kaden, Teddie, Vinnie and Dillon all picked up right where they left off before Christmas," said Utley. "We also had several other inexperienced guys step up for us, too."

Nick Johnson (126), Eddie Harvey (132), Matt Stumpf (138), Chase Craven (145), Jimmy Averill (160), Nick Hindt (170) and Caelan Burbank (285) all prevailed once, as well, for the Gaels, who actually led the Cowboys by a 33-24 count before dropping their last three matches.

"We're still battling through some injuries right now, but we figured we had a chance to go right down to the wire with Clarion," Utley said. "After wrestling each other for the past 10 or 12 days, it was nice to finally get back out (on the mat)."